Notre Dame guard Skylar Diggins (4) drives down court during the second half of the regional final game of the women's NCAA college basketball tournament Tuesday, April 2, 2013, in Norfolk, Va. Notre Dame own the game 87-76. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
Photo: Steve Helber, Associated Press

Notre Dame guard Skylar Diggins, left, saves a ball from going out of bounds during the first half of a second-round game against Iowa in the women's NCAA college basketball tournament, Tuesday, March 26, 2013, in Iowa City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Photo: Charlie Neibergall, Associated Press

Notre Dame guard Skylar Diggins, left, saves a ball from going out...

Notre Dame's Skylar Diggins in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the final of the Big East Conference women's tournament in Hartford, Conn in Hartford, Conn., Tuesday, March 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
Photo: Jessica Hill, Associated Press

Notre Dame's Skylar Diggins in the first half of an NCAA college...

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - APRIL 3: Skylar Diggins #4 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish celebrates as time runs out during Notre Dame's defeat of the Connecticut Huskies in the 2011 NCAA Women's Final Four at Conseco Fieldhouse on April 3, 2011 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Notre Dame defeated Connecticut 72-63. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)
Photo: Jamie Sabau, ST

NEW ORLEANS -- Two years ago in Indianapolis, the story of Skylar Diggins began to take shape.

The Irish had just lost the national championship game 76-70 to Texas A&M, and Diggins had the tears to prove it. She was off the court quickly, before the confetti hit the floor. She returned to her hotel room to find her best friends, ex-Stanford guard Candice Wiggins and her former high school teammate, Emily Phillips.

"The way she came into the hotel room that night," Phillips said, "was the same way she came into the hotel room when we lost states."

Two things happened that night: Skylar Diggins, who had already been defeated in three Indiana high school state championship games, lost another on the big stage. And she instantaneously became a celebrity.

Sometime after Wiggins and Phillips consoled Diggins, the three of them checked their phones. Diggins' following on social media had grown exponentially. Searches for her name on Yahoo! had spiked 2,700 percent during Final Four weekend, according to a report from the site. She had uber-celebrities like rapper Lil' Wayne clamoring for attention.

"It was right then and there that we realized, `You're big now -- there's no going back,'" Phillips recalled. "It really was so crazy."

Two years later, Diggins insists that her life hasn't changed.

"I still had to go to class, I still had to go to practice, I live in South Bend," Diggins said. "(My life) is pretty regular in that sense."

Wearing her trademark headband -- which naturally has become a trend for female basketball players -- Diggins took her Irish through a final tune-up at The New Orleans Arena Saturday. She swore audibly when she misfired in shooting drills, laughed while she danced along to the Irish jig and held a smile while answering the question "How much would a championship mean to you?" approximately a dozen times.

As those close to her will tell you, that all sums up Sky: A jokester -- "She needs her own stand-up comedy show," Phillips said -- with a ruthless competitive streak. When she gets beat in a drill, she wants to run it back. When she gets beat in a national championship game, she's in South Bend's King Center the next day. It's been that way since Notre Dame assistant Niele Ivey began recruiting the South Bend star.

Ivey's first impressions: "No matter who's on her team, if she has the worst player on the country on the floor with her, she's going to make them better," Ivey said. "It was her fire and her competitiveness. You could be down 20 and with her on the court, it's not over. That's how I felt watching her."

A former Notre Dame national champion herself, Ivey was hired by coach Muffet McGraw in May 2007 and handed simple instructions: "We need to get Skylar Diggins." McGraw had offered Diggins a scholarship as an eighth-grader, but no one -- not Phillips, not Ivey -- knew which direction the third-ranked prospect in the 2009 class would go. They did know, however, that she'd become a star.

They just didn't grasp the extent.

Celebrity status is quantifiable today, and Diggins' fame has reached unfathomable heights. Her Twitter following is north of 330,000, more than the NBA's No. 1 draft pick, Anthony Davis, more than the accounts of Notre Dame football, the Brooklyn Nets, Dunkin' Donuts and The Boston Globe. By Tuesday, it's feasible that she'll surpass The Los Angeles Times.

On Tuesday, it's feasible that she'll hoist the national championship trophy, the cameras capturing her emotions at the pinnacle of her sport. It's also possible that she'll leave dejected, a brilliant career complete with too many second-place medals.

For all the clutch plays she's made -- because, let's face it, she undoubtedly possesses that "it" factor -- Diggins has lost quite often on the big stage. Dating back to high school, she's 236-26 overall (90 percent), but 1-5 in championship games.

The Texas A&M defeat in 2011 was followed by a blowout loss to Baylor in 2012. At Washington High in South Bend, Diggins was 1-3 in state title games. A 26-0 record in her senior year received an ill-timed blemish when Ben Davis High -- also undefeated -- won the 4A state championship on a runner with 1.4 seconds remaining.

Diggins, who pioneered a miraculous 11-point comeback in the final 2:43, missed the ensuing three-quarter-court attempt, and Washington fell 71-69 at Indianapolis' Lucas Oil Stadium.

A freshman at Penn State, Emily Phillips was among the 13,000 fans in attendance. She said Diggins was composed after the loss in 2009 -- not like 2006 and 2008, when her 25 points wasn't enough to overcome Carmel High in what Phillips called "a game we knew we were going to lose with about five minutes left." Diggins refused to wear the runner-up medallion that year, Phillips recalled. In 2006, Sky cried. In 2008, she was just ticked off, in one of those moods where she "wouldn't talk to people," as Phillips described.

"You either put up or shut up," Diggins said.

In her final season at Notre Dame, she's put up in some huge moments: the back-to-back 3-pointers that evened the score, 50-50, during a January showdown in Storrs; the first-half shooting that kept the Irish afloat against Duke in the Elite Eight; the game-winning steal and assist that stunned the Huskies in the Big East title game.

ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo hasn't seen a better point guard since Sue Bird, and she points to the subtleties to explain: On the pick-and-roll, Diggins will "push Ariel Braker away" and instead perform the play with Natalie Achonwa, a better midrange shooting threat. Much of Diggins' impact isn't flashy, which is funny because it's Diggins.

She's as flashy as they come.

It seems she thoroughly enjoys the limelight. When she reaches social media milestones, she tweets the number --"250K" on June 9, for example -- to announce how large a following she's gained. She frequently interacts with her fans, and would "sign every autograph if we had time," Ivey said. And like other high-profile prospects, she infused some drama to her college decision.

"She made us sweat it out," Ivey said with a laugh. "I knew in the end she would do something spectacular."

Without disclosing her choice -- even her best friend, Phillips, didn't know -- Diggins set a press conference for the final day of the 2008 early signing period. She leaned into the microphones, said "I'm going to be part of the class of 2013 at ..." and unbuttoned her letterman's jacket to reveal the No. 4 Notre Dame jersey that she wears today.

Four years have passed, and now Notre Dame needs extra postgame security because so many fans want to talk to Diggins or get an autograph. She recently spoke with Nancy Lieberman, a pioneer in women's basketball, and received a "good luck" wish from R&B sensation Trey Songz. She's as polarizing a figure as you'll find in college sports: Celebrated by some for her swagger, despised by others (mostly in Connecticut) for her perceived arrogance. She's a 22-year-old All-Basketball, All-Academic sex symbol with a future in anything she wants.

But Skylar Diggins still mutters to herself after a 12-foot jump-shot rims out, still seeks perfection in the most basic of tasks. She is still driven like she was when Ivey recruited her six years ago, which has brought her to New Orleans today.

"You don't have to be the best," Diggins explained, "but you have to be your best."

Her best hasn't yet delivered a national championship to South Bend. She has one more chance -- fittingly under the sport's brightest spotlight -- to change that.